Beltane Waning Flower Moon
Business meeting. Over to a flooring store to schedule the replacement of carpet in the small bedroom that will become Kate’s long-arm quilting room. Lunch at Chili’s where the music was so loud I could barely hear myself think, literally. When my one ear gets crammed full of noise, I find processing thought difficult. Would be a good hell for me. Lots of interesting conversation happening next to a loud waterfall.
Grocery store, too. I’ve done regular, that is weekly, grocery shopping since seminary days when I used to cook for the whole floor of students. Most of the time I’ve enjoyed it, something about being able to make choices and the diversity of a supermarket. These days though I’ve begun to find it a nuisance, a repetitive task with little to commend it. Maybe that will change, or perhaps I’ll be able to reframe it.
How bout that world out there, eh? Oil pumping into the Gulf where it has begun to tar birds, clog up the wetlands and ruin shrimping and oyster farming. Volcanoes in Iceland wrecking havoc with airplanes. Snow in Minnesota in May. A frost, too. Gov. Pawlenty’s cruel cuts in the state’s budget overturned by our Supreme Court–with two weeks left in the legislative session. Big fun at the capitol. Enough snow on the East Coast over the last winter to confuse the debate in the Senate over a climate bill. Not to mention the usual run of human misery and suffering.
I’m impressed right now with a political approach that takes into account particulars, that is individual suffering, the Gulf shrimp, the passengers and airlines troubled by the Icelandic ash plumes while acknowledging the need for universal abstractions like equality, justice, human rights. I’m impressed with this approach because it doesn’t exist. More on this at another point.